Light rain and possible thunderstorms roll into Southern California

Scattered rain fell across Southern California on Monday morning as ominous clouds rolled in, following a pattern of gloomy weather interrupting summer-like temperatures in Los Angeles this month.

With a 50% chance of thunderstorms to start the workweek, forecasters expect the gray skies to stretch through Tuesday, when that probability drops to 20%. Much of Monday morning’s light precipitation was concentrated along the Central Coast.

The spotty rainfall is courtesy of a low-pressure system that ushered in a deep marine layer across the Southland, according to Bonnie Bartling, a specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. The front is expected to bring variable amounts of rain — ranging from one-tenth of an inch to a third of an inch.

A slight dip in temperatures is also expected until midweek, although it will still be too warm for snow to reach any mountaintops. Temperatures in Los Angeles are expected to reach 67 degrees Monday but will rise to 76 degrees by Friday.

The final days of April showers come after a series of winter storms in California that resulted in a rare wet season for the state. All of the precipitation swelled the state’s snowpack — a key indicator for California’s water supply — to 113 inches deep in late February.

Downtown Los Angeles has seen more than 26 inches of rainfall since Oct. 1, when this water year began, surpassing the average for the entire year of 14.93 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

Bartling advised hikers, campers and motorists to monitor weather conditions for their safety.

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As of 8 a.m., two people had been killed in freeway crashes during the morning’s rain. A deadly crash involving a big-rig was reported around 4 a.m. on the northbound 5 Freeway in Sun Valley at Tuxford Street in which one person was pronounced dead at the scene.

Shortly after, another fatal crash that included a big-rig occurred on the eastbound 10 Freeway near the White Avenue offramp in Pomona. Witnesses told the California Highway Patrol that a sedan rear-ended the tractor-trailer at high speed. One person was pronounced dead at the scene.

A third collision took place earlier in the morning on the eastbound 10 Freeway near the Garey Avenue offramp, causing a big-rig to burst into flames. No fatalities were reported in that crash, but SigAlerts were issued for that stretch of freeway.